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It may be a cliché, but “stopping to smell the roses” comes along with legitimate, science-backed benefits. “We’re always talking about the feelings or visual exposure of plants, but their scents can actually help to improve life as a form of alternative medicine by reconnecting ourselves with nature,” says Paris Lalicata, plant education organizer at The Sill. “The smell of plants can help reduce things like stress, depression and anxiety, and improve our cognitive function and creativity.” Finding a way to stop and smell those roses—particularly after a year of worry and fear—is paramount, and it’s with that in mind that The Sill teamed up Canopy for a collaboration of plant-inspired scents to bring the beauty of nature indoors.
Experts in This Article
plant education coordinator at The Sill
The collaboration includes three essential oil blends that smell like a flower market, a greenhouse, and a forest. All are meant to be used with your humidifier to create the sensory experience of being around plants (whether or not you have them in your space). “It helps to bring those scents indoors at a time when you may not otherwise be able to seek them—especially if you’re someone who lives in a city where you open the windows,” says Lalicata. “As humans, we desire natural elements, and having the smell of plants can actually help to improve life at home as a form of alternative medicine by helping us reconnect with nature.”
Canopy X The Sill Aroma Kit (with subscription) — $125.00
Canopy X The Sill Aroma Kit — $40.00
And what’s more, the sense of scent can strongly connect you to places outside your present physical space. “When you smell something, the olfactive memory puts you right back into those moments—even more so than visual memories—because it goes right into those centers of your brain,” Nicole Mancini, a senior perfumer with Givaudan, previously told Well+Good. “In this sort of disconnected world that we’re in, we want to be connected, and scent can do that in so many different ways.”
Unlike your usual candles or pillow sprays, the humidifiers supplement their sensory benefits by helping to improve the quality of the air in your home—which is good for both you and whatever plants you’re currently parenting. “When we’re bringing these diffusers in, they’re not only benefiting our plants, which we know need that higher level of humidity, but they also lend themselves to healthier skin and healthier breathing functions,” says Lalicata. “We hope that it helps to transport people to their favorite outdoor places…and their plants and give them the sense of healing that they usually seek from the outdoors.”
Considering we spend more than 90 percent of our time indoors, this system gives us a way to bring the great outdoors in. “Aside from having a sense of peace and natural connection,” says Lalicata, “These plant scents can help us create a deeper love for our own spaces.”
Want to bring some *actual* low-maintenance plants into your home, too? Check out the five hardest to kill options in the video below.
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